mildred clark is an ob/gyn on our block in crown heights, the only neighborhood we lived in. what i did not realize was i had a rare experience being surrounded by black women physicians to the point where i thought most physicians were black women until i got to college and recognized most students did not look like me. these women were role models to me just like my mother and that representation was important in giving me the confidence to recognize that being a physician was possible. host: you describe your mother at harvard as a fish out of water. dr. blackstone: yes, i talk about how when she got to harvard her classmates had parents who had written the textbook, another classmate was a relative of jackie onassis in another had a parent who had won a nobel prize in immunology. at that point my mother could say her own mother worked full-time, managed to get off of public assistance, became a licensed practical nurse and she was proud of her mother. but it was a culture shock for her to be at harvard surrounded by people who had tremendous resources and opportunities, f